Joe eyes me like he knows I don’t have any fucking idea what we’ve spent the last hour talking about. “I’ll see you out, Raymond.”
Raymond.
We shake hands, and Joe leads him to the lobby.
Important meetings like this are always conducted at our office instead of at the warehouse. It’s more of a commute than I’m used to, but it’s worth it for the view. From the twentieth floor, we’ve got an incredible vantage point of both the Strip and the mountains. To the outside world, it looks like a standard shipping company, but this conference room has witnessed vile, gruesome conversations that most people could never dream up.
A few minutes later, Joe is back, and he lets the door slam behind him.
“Did Raymond get off okay?”
Joe snorts. “Do you care? You hardly said two words to the man during that meeting, and don’t even pretend like you weren’t daydreaming about your new plaything.”
“Maddie isn’t my new plaything.” I clench my jaw. How dare he talk about her that way? “She’s working for me. An employee. That’s it.”
“Maddie?” He eyes me.
“Forget about it, okay?” I brush him off, bracing myself against the polished oak conference table. “If I’m distracted, it’s because I’m worried that shit is falling through the cracks here while I’mtrying to chase down the men who shot a park up to go after my son.”
Joe stiffens, but he doesn’t take offense to my claim that he’s letting things slip because we both know I’m deflecting. The last thing Joe is is sloppy. Perceptive is much more his style. “We’re solid,” he says. “But I had some guys look into Russ after your text this morning.”
“And?”
“And she’s right.” Joe clicks his tongue, obviously a little surprised. “I didn’t want to believe it, but one of the car ports had a surveillance camera put up a while ago. Russ knew about it, and conveniently, all the footage was deleted. I spent all morning recovering it.”
Joe pulls out his iPad and slides it in front of me. The footage is grainy, but I can clearly see Russ in the alleyway. He’s alone, which is odd because he was supposed to be meeting a client to deliver. Russ glances around the area and then he breaks the lock on our unit and starts piling gun parts out. A second later, another person pulls up like he knows Russ. The two talk and start loading pallets of my product into the car. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of product. The motherfucker was stealing from us.
I glance up at Joe, who nods at the screen. Great, there’s more.
After they get a good amount loaded, a fight breaks out between the two partners and the other man shoves Russ down. He cuts his leg on the side of the garage, tearing it on some shredded metal, just like Maddie said. Russ pulls his gun out and shoots the guy point blank.
“What the fuck did I just watch?” I toss the screen onto the table, rubbing my temples.
“You watched a man who has been with us for the last ten years try to steal almost a half mil in product, shoot his partnerdead over some kind of disagreement, and fabricate a story where he’s the victim so we wouldn’t now.”
“Did you bring him in?”
Joe nods. “He sang like a fucking canary. Admitted the entire thing. And it’s not the first time. He’s been swiping a few parts here and there to sell on his own. So small that no one would know the difference.”
“Jesus Christ.” I rake my fingers through my hair. There aren’t a lot of hard and fast rules in this business, but stealing from the hand that feeds you? Yeah, that breaks every fucking one of them.
“How do you want me to play this? He’s locked up now. We can do it quickly and quietly if you want, or…”
“Or make an example out of him.”
Joe nods. “You make the call.”
With all the turmoil over the last few months, a show of force might not be the worst thing. Especially when the act of betrayal is so personal and so blatant. I won’t tolerate this behavior from any of my men; it’s best to just nip it right in the bud.
It’s easier to make a call like this when it’s someone you don’t know. A rival. An enemy. I guess that’s what Russ has made himself into, though.
“Let him rot for a few days and then we’ll make a show of it.” I grit my teeth. “I don’t want this happening again.”
“You got it.” Joe nods. “I’ll set it up.”
Joe and I finish things up at the office and I head home.
The house looks nothing like it did when I left. Laundry put away. Toys picked up. Jesus, the floors even look clean enough to eat off of. Maddie is a magician, and I have no idea how she balances things like she does. On days I’m alone with Ty, I get nothing done, and the house looks like a war zone, and I’ve had much more practice than she has. I almost feel guilty for all the slack she picks up.
